Here we go again, this time in my local area. I've tried to give advice but not hopeful it will be listened to or taken seriously.
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From what I can tell from that story, she doesn’t really have a leg to stand on. It was her responsibility to make sure she applied for ILR before her visa ran out... and she didn’t. Instead, she became an illegal overstayer... and it’s no one’s fault but her own.
Since she was given a 12-month ban, it wouldn’t have only been an overstay of a couple of days either... it would have been an overstay of at least 30 days if her visa expired on or after April 6th 2017, or at least 90 days if her visa expired before April 5th 2017.
I had a friend from Hong Kong in a similar situation a few years ago... though she didn’t become an overstayer. She had lived in the U.K. for 10 years on student visas (since the age of 12) and applied for ILR based on 10 years Long Residence. The problem was that there had been an issue with one of her student visas a few years earlier (when switching schools) and there ended up being an accidental gap between the visas. Instead of blaming UKVI and fighting the decision, she accepted it and opted to return to live in Hong Kong. That was almost 10 years ago, and she is now married with children in Hong Kong and hasn’t even tried to move back to the UK.
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